Politics live: Reform announces plan to rip up Equality Act as Farage unveils top team

Former minister Laura Farris has said that Robert Jenrick is more capable than Suella Braverman, and was not surprised Mrs Braverman was “shunted off into a minor”.

Laura Farris, who previously served in government alongside both of them, told Sky News she is “not surprised” that Mr Jenrick got a better a job than Mrs Braverman.

“Rob Jenrick is more able than Suella,” she said.

“He's more intelligent and he's more hard working, and that's just a fact... It's not a secret across the entire House of Commons.”

Ms Farris said she believes Mrs Braverman will be “a very low-impact because she always is when she's anywhere near any sort of position, and she'll just say shocking things.”

Mr Jenrick was named as Treasury spokesman, while Mrs Braverman was put in charge of education, skills and equalities.

You could almost hear Robert Jenrick’s ears prick up when Nigel Farage said: “If I was hit by a bus tomorrow…” Jenrick has secured a very good transfer fee for his defection, and today he claimed his prize of being named as chancellor in a possible Reform government, but he gives the impression of always wanting more.

There are certainly people in Reform who think that Jenrick’s calculation in joining the party was with an eye to taking over as leader if anything happened to Farage, but the man at the top was not in the business of naming his successor today. If he were the victim of the proverbial public transport accident, he said, “Reform has its own brand, Reform has its own identity”.

He was trying to say that the party was no longer a one-man band, and that it was now a professional outfit getting ready to assume the responsibilities of government. But almost everything about today’s news conference contradicted that impression.

Read John Rentoul’s column:

The people of Gorton and Denton will be heading to the polls next week to vote in what is expected to be a major test for Sir Keir Starmer and the Labour Party.

Among the candidates hoping to be elected are a plumber, a GB News presenter and a retired police officer, as Labour tries to fight off the threats from both sides of the political spectrum to retain the north west seat.

In a bid to appeal to disheartened Labour voters in the historically safe seat, the Green Party is pushing local plumber Hannah Spencer, while ex-academic Matt Goodwin, who has been criticised for comments on race and gender, is on Reform UK’s ballot.

Meanwhile, local councillor Angeliki Stogia is fighting to defend Labour’s 13,000 majority, after the party controversially blocked the popular Manchester mayor Andy Burnham from running.

Elsewhere, nine other candidates from the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and others will also be standing in the election on 26 February.

Politcal reporter Athena Stavrou takes you through who the candidates are here.

The government has abandoned plans to postpone local elections for dozens of councils in May after receiving legal advice against the move.

Of the 63 councils able to apply for a delay, a total of 30 were due to go ahead with the postponement.

The councils that were due to have their elections delayed were:

• Adur District Council
• Basildon Borough Council
• Blackburn with Darwen Council
• Burnley Borough Council
• Cannock Chase District Council
• Cheltenham Borough Council
• Chorley Borough Council
• City of Lincoln Council
• Crawley Borough Council
• East Sussex County Council
• Exeter City Council
• Harlow District Council
• Hastings Borough Council
• Hyndburn Borough Council
• Ipswich Borough Council
• Norfolk County Council
• Norwich City Council
• Pendle Borough Council
• Peterborough City Council
• Preston City Council
• Redditch Borough Council
• Rugby Borough Council
• Stevenage Borough Council
• Suffolk County Council
• Tamworth Borough Council
• Thurrock Council
• Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council
• West Lancashire Borough Council
• West Sussex County Council
• Worthing Borough Council

Given Labour’s dire position in the polls, the May elections were always going to deliver an adverse judgement of the electorate – but Nigel Farage’s Reform look set to make gains in the shire councils that were once solid Tory strongholds, says Professor Sir John Curtice:

Reform UK has been accused of "pitching for the votes of misogynists, homophobes, racists and antisemites" after Suella Braverman, the party's new equalities chief, announced plans to scrap the Equality Act.

Nigel Farage used a press conference in London to unveil Reform’s top team, appointing Mrs Braverman as the party’s education, skills and equalities spokesperson.

Addressing the conference, she said Reform would repeal the Equality Act on day one if it wins the next election, claiming that Britain is being “ripped apart by diversity, equality and inclusion” policies.

The Independent’s Political Correspondent has the story:

The general secretary of the Trades Union Congress has said that Nigel Farage and Reform want to legalise discrimination after the party announced its plans to scrap the Equality Act.

Paul Nowak said the proposals were “just the start” of Farage’s plans for working people.

He said repealing the Equality Act “means your boss could mistreat you because you're a woman, or black, or gay, or pregnant, or disabled, and there’d be nothing you could do about it.

“Basically, if you don’t look like Nigel Farage, or me, you could be in trouble.”

Suella Braverman, who announced the plans, said: “We will repeal the Equality Act, because we are going to work to build a country defined by meritocracy not tokenism, personal responsibility not victimhood, excellence not mediocrity, and unity not division.”